If I could keep the consistent tone of this movie's remake and combine it with the nihilistic hopelessness of this film it would be nearly perfect. Every performance, save for David Hess isn't good enough to elevate this into greatness. There are many things about this movie that don't work because of the independent nature of it. While I can't hold it against Wes Craven and the crew involved that doesn't mean I have to like it either. The music, editing, and acting could all be better given different choices with a bigger budget. That being said there are flashes of brilliance throughout this whole movie. The scenes in the woods, as shocking as they are end in such a reverent way. In the last 15 minutes or so David Hess cements himself as one of the best villains in cinema history. While some people see this movie as a Vietnam allegory I see it as a total destruction of innocence in many ways.
The film starts with Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody) leaving her parents on the eve of her 17th birthday to go to a concert with her friend Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham). While on their way home from the concert Mari and Phyllis, who both had previously been interested in doing drugs, are tricked into a home by Junior Stillo (Marc Sheffler) under the false pretense of giving them drugs. Junior is the heroin addicted son of Krug Stillo, (David Hess) a murderer who recently escaped prison. Krug and his gang also consists of his girlfriend Sadie (Jeramie Rain) and Weasel (Fred Lincoln). They take Mari and Phyllis to the woods and force them into one degrading act after another. This includes making them pee in their pants, stripping them naked, making them perform sexual acts with each other. It seems like they are only having fun at first until Phyllis tries to escape and they stab her to death. Mari is raped and basically concedes her own death as Krug shoots her. Meanwhile, Mari's parents are planning a surprise party and low and behold guess who shows up to the house to stay the night...
When it comes to the loss of innocence angle this film has many dimensions. When we first see Mari we see her naked in the shower, making her less innocent to us as an audience. She is about to leave the house without a bra which her father calls her out for. Her mother then comes in and they all have a conversation about how women are more liberal in that time than before. Mari talks about how the bras in her mother's young age made their "tits look like missiles." Since this film was made around the time of the sexual revolution and right on the steps to the door of Roe V. Wade this is relevant. Mari's innocence is further corrupted by her wanting to indulge in vices like drugs and drinking with Phyllis. While it is not her doing, she is made to strip naked in front of others and is finally raped by Krug destroying any notion of innocence entirely.
This idea of the loss of innocence is comparable to what soldiers go through. Some of them around the time of the Vietnam war were drafted around 18 years old, some fought even younger than that, they probably indulged in those same things underage or just of age in the military and they went through the same adversity Phyllis goes through fighting for her life.
Transitioning to her parents, they also go through a loss of innocence. Their innocence from killing, innocence from immorality are broken. While I can't relate to the time this movie was filmed I can still see what Craven was going for. This allegory to war is made even more evident by the radio programs that play which would have been the way people heard the news about the status of the war and people's deaths back then. Just like Mari's upper class parents they don't really care about that stuff until it hits them right at their front door step. If they were listening they would have known who Krug and the gang were when they showed up. I don't know if it shows something like they are above those kind of people but it shows they are content with their own life until they have to go through some adversity of their own. The cross cutting between them at home baking pies and Krug's gang are not well done but they serve the purpose of again showing the difference between people who live hard, adverse lives with those who are content. The dinner scene later and what Krug says about all the silverware they have shows the difference in life of privilege. Soldiers and people in prison never have those luxuries.
Going back to my thesis, this movie's tone is all over the place. While some of David Hess's folk music hits right, most of the music in this film, in particular the banjo and kazoo music feels way out of place. The bumbling cops only serve to pad runtime and their car breaking down serves as a lame way of getting them out of the way as they catch on to the fact that it was Krug's car near the Collingwood's home. I do like seeing a young Martin Kove though. Apart from the tone, the editing during some of the films fight sequences is terrible. That is probably because they had no budget for stunts and every fight had to be real.
David Hess shows flashes of what he becomes later. I do enjoy his more soft spoken comedic side at times like when he talks to the girls about wanting grass. He shows that intensity when he tells Junior to shut up early on. He doesn't reach full Hess though until the end when he toys with Dr. John while fighting him. That is when Hess turns into one of the best villains ever! I love how he keeps saying hey I'll give you another punch or how he talks about how Mari died right in front of him. He only cements his place further as one of the best villains in the sequence where he bullies Junior into killing himself with the gun. There is something so chilling about how he can from 0-100 and the intensity of how he says "BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT!" Hess's performance in both Hitch-Hike and The House on the Edge of the Park is better to me and more complete.
There are other character subtleties I like in this too. Junior in particular has some interesting moments. Early on there is an interesting scene between him and Sadie in the bathtub where it is clear he likes Sadie. Later when Sadie says she won't do anything until more girls are there, that could be why Junior invites Mari and Phyllis in. When he is the one to suggest that Mari and Phyllis "make it with each other," it is actually a way of protecting them from further harm.
There are many other things I like too. There is something almost biblical about how Mari's death happens. Her reading the prayers, her slowly walking away as the gang follows. I love how that was filmed. I love how scary it is when Phyllis is surrounded in the cemetery. David Hess's subtle shaking of his head when Mari asks if Phyllis is alive. Junior having Mari's necklace and that being what gives them away to the parents. The well placed and scary dream sequence with Weasel. I thought that was going into Oldboy territory for a second there.
While I like many things about this movie I can't excuse the things I don't like. You could've just cut the cops entirely and made this shorter and more concise. I wish the music could have been different. While I can understand the choices of acting I can't help but compare that to better performances I've seen in exploitation films. Craven would get better as a filmmaker. This movie has flashes. The allegories and acting would be better in The Hills Have Eyes. There is more FX driven work and style in A Nightmare on Elm Street. With New Nightmare and Scream he would perfect the line between style, real looking FX, better editing, and most importantly mixing more levity with scares. This is a great preview of things to come for his work.
Rating: 6.5/10
Trivia: Sandra Peabody (Mari) was actually terrified during shooting. At one point she even walked off set.
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